CLIENTS SECTION RULES

This section is for CLIENTS (Full SMOD Releases) ONLY.You may create a new topic in this area to release your SMOD Mod. If you post anything off-topic here you will be temp-banned. This is so you don't hassle the moderators too much, they are volunteers.

If you need help with a mod, post a reply in its thread. Do not start a new topic for help here!

Please use good taste when releasing your mod. Adding 30 custom weapons from the release archive into SMOD Redux and then releasing as your own mod will be frowned upon.

Author
Topic: SMOD Standalone 0.65 (Read 200608 times)

After much work, discovering secrets of the source engine, and time, I hereby present to you:

SMOD Standalone

What is SMOD Standalone, you may ask?

SMOD Standalone is Pepsifan04 (that's me ) try to save SMOD from slowly death caused by constant Source and Steam updates.It also fixes Lua code that broke with the Update of Source SDK Base 2006 to .vpk format.It does have some additional features and big updatetibilty potential, causing it to be long-term project that, will hopefully bring SMOD back to life!I'm also hoping that this version will become "Official" patch to our beloved SMOD

What does it do?As the name says: it makes SMOD standalone and Steam non-dependent, that is of course for playing.Installation process requires from user to have Steam installed and own Half-Life 2 and Source SDK.

Or more precisely: Automated installer extracts .vpk archives from Source SDK Base 2006 and moves extracted files to a separate location,To provide independent, yet legal, source of Half-Life 2 files that will survive any Steam or Source Update.In addition to that, it makes SMOD use OrangeBox engine version!Unfortunately, at the moment the only benefit from that is enchanted game performance as it allows usage of more than 512MB of game memory (LAA)However, there are possibilities of making SMOD be able to launch HL2:Episode 2 maps, HDR any many more.(Some features are already confirmed to "work" but they make game very unstable at the moment)

Changes specific to SMOD Standalone:

- Takes advantage of using OrangeBox version of source engine- Different file and tiers structure, that'll allow for smaller 3rd party SMOD mods- SteamAppId is back to 220- Fixed Lua support for SMOD

Additional Information and Download:

This release does not contain any other files than supplied with SMOD40aq+ four extra files to make SMOD work outside of Steam while playingIf you encounter any problems post them here.Engine documentation and readme files are supplied within installation.

In order to install properly, Installer must be put inside your "sourcemods" folder (usually C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\sourcemods)Also, you need to have installed and played at least once:Half-Life 2 (updated to latest available version via Steam)Source SDK Base 2006 (updated to latest available version via Steam)

As of 0.65, SMOD Standalone does not automatically detect where your "steamapps\sourcemods" folder is on your drive. You must manually move or copy the installer file into it, or it won't install correctly. If you've improperly installed it into a different folder, uninstall it and reinstall into the sourcemods folder.

SMOD Standalone can't extract and copy over needed files unless both games are converted to the SteamPipe distribution system Valve updated them with. If you haven't ran or installed Half-Life 2 or Source SDK 2006 Base in some time, rerun or reinstall the games. If Steam prompts you to convert the game's content, do so. After its done, uninstall and reinstall SMOD Standalone

3: Your Half-Life 2/SDK 2006 Base installs are not on the same hard drive as your "SourceMods" folder.

As of 0.65, SMOD Standalone does not automatically detect where your Half-Life 2 or SDK 2006 Base installs are. They must be on the same drive as your sourcemods folder for SMOD Standalone to work. If they are not, SMOD Standalone can't copy or load needed files much in the same way it can't copy or load them if you have not converted the games to SteamPipe. You'll need to reinstall Half-Life 2 and the Source SDK 2006 Base onto the same Hard Disk Drive as your sourcemods folder. After that, uninstall and reinstall SMOD Standalone.

For any number of reasons, the installs of Half-Life 2 and/or the Source SDK 2006 Base has corrupted and is missing files or your SMOD Standalone download did not complete correctly. If you think that Half-Life 2 or the SDK has corrupt files, right click on the game's name in your Steam Library, click "properties-local files-verify integrity of game cache..." and allow Steam to verify and redownload files if needed. If you think your download of SMOD Standalone was not completed correctly, try redownloading it at a different time and/or using a different browser.

DETAILED TROUBLESHOOTING

1. I can't see "SMOD standalone" on my "steam games list"- That's because SMOD Stdl and any other SMOD mods are not managed trough steam any more.Use "SMOD Standalone" launcher that can be found inside installation folder,or launch them via shortcut to hl2.exe inside smod standalone, for how-to see: "LAUNCHING 3RD-PARTY SMOD MODS" section of ENGINE DOCUMENTATION

2. I can't launch my SMOD:a. make sure that it's located in SMOD Standalone/mods folderb. make sure that mod gameinfo.txt is properly configured (list of fixed gameinfo.txt's can be found below) c. Make sure that Shortcut to hl2.exe is properly configurednote: if mod folder name contain spaces, you can surround folder name in shortcut with " (quotation marks)

3. "Extra App ID set to ###, but no SteamAppId"Comment-out // every line inside <yoursmod>/scripts/addcontents.txtor simply remove it's contents leaving it blank. (fixed addcontents.txt can be found below) 4. I'm getting this massage during installation: ./common/half-life 2/bin/vpk.exe (Check that you have the right name and try again)a.Verify your Half-Life 2 and Source SDK Base 2006 installation.Run each one before performing installation.b.Make sure that Installer is located inside "sourcemods" folder

FileSystem{SteamAppId220// This will mount all the GCFs we need (240=CS:S, 220=HL2).ToolsAppId211// Tools will load this (ie: source SDK caches) to get things like materials\debug, materials\editor, etc.SearchPaths{Game|gameinfo_path|.gamehl2game"|gameinfo_path|..\..\SDKBase"Game"|gameinfo_path|..\..\..\..\common\Half-Life 2\hl2"

FileSystem{SteamAppId220// This will mount all the GCFs we need (240=CS:S, 220=HL2).ToolsAppId211// Tools will load this (ie: source SDK caches) to get things like materials\debug, materials\editor, etc.SearchPaths{Game|gameinfo_path|.gamehl2game"|gameinfo_path|..\..\SDKBase"game"|gameinfo_path|..\..\CSSBase"Game"|gameinfo_path|..\..\..\..\common\Half-Life 2\hl2"Game"|gameinfo_path|..\..\..\..\common\Counter-Strike Source\cstrike"

FileSystem{SteamAppId220// This will mount all the GCFs we need (240=CS:S, 220=HL2).ToolsAppId211// Tools will load this (ie: source SDK caches) to get things like materials\debug, materials\editor, etc.SearchPaths{Game|gameinfo_path|.gamehl2game"|gameinfo_path|..\..\SDKBase"Game"|gameinfo_path|..\..\..\..\common\Half-Life 2\hl2"

FileSystem{SteamAppId220// This will mount all the GCFs we need (240=CS:S, 220=HL2).ToolsAppId211// Tools will load this (ie: source SDK caches) to get things like materials\debug, materials\editor, etc.SearchPaths{Game|gameinfo_path|.gamehl2game"|gameinfo_path|..\..\SDKBase"Game"|gameinfo_path|..\..\..\..\common\Half-Life 2\hl2"

FileSystem{SteamAppId220// This will mount all the GCFs we need (240=CS:S, 220=HL2).ToolsAppId211// Tools will load this (ie: source SDK caches) to get things like materials\debug, materials\editor, etc.SearchPaths{Game|gameinfo_path|.gamehl2game"|gameinfo_path|..\..\SDKBase"game"|gameinfo_path|..\..\CSSBase"Game"|gameinfo_path|..\..\..\..\common\Half-Life 2\hl2"Game"|gameinfo_path|..\..\..\..\common\Half-Life 2 Deathmatch\hl2mp"Game"|gameinfo_path|..\..\..\..\common\Counter-Strike Source\cstrike"}}}

FileSystem{SteamAppId220// This will mount all the GCFs we need (240=CS:S, 220=HL2).ToolsAppId211// Tools will load this (ie: source SDK caches) to get things like materials\debug, materials\editor, etc.SearchPaths{Game|gameinfo_path|.gamehl2game"|gameinfo_path|..\..\SDKBase"game"|gameinfo_path|..\..\CSSBase"Game"|gameinfo_path|..\..\..\..\common\Half-Life 2\hl2"Game"|gameinfo_path|..\..\..\..\common\Half-Life 2 Deathmatch\hl2mp"Game"|gameinfo_path|..\..\..\..\common\Counter-Strike Source\cstrike"}}}

Any if you're having problems with surfaceproperties_manifest.txt (not found)remove "game hl2" from gameinfo.txt

Also Here's fixed addcontents.txt (from scripts folder)You need to replace addcontents.txt in every smod you're trying to launch with smod standaloneYou can copy-paste

root\Bin:- Folder containing all .dll-s of "Source SDK Base 2006"It's not recommended to edit or remove anything from this folder, since those are base files of source engine

root\Platform:- Folder containing all extracted assets of "Source SDK Base 2006"It's not recommended to edit anything inside this folder, since those are base files of source engine

root\SDKBase:- Folder containing all extracted assets of "Half-Life 2"It also contains all of pre May 2013 update files.Those are basic models/sounds/materials/ect. for Half-Life 2Again, it's not recommended to edit or remove anything from this folder,If there's a need of editing any file, copy it to a corresponding location in <your_smod> folder then edit it.This way, there's always an easily accessible "original" inside "SDKBase" in case of errors/crashes cased by bugs while editing.

root\hl2.exe:OrangeBox version of Source engine.It's optimized and Large address aware (LAA), allowing for more than 512MB of available game memory.Allows usage of "HD" textures and more "costly" models. (to some extend)

root\mods:Place for User-made Smod mods, any mod placed in that folder will be automatically detected by "SMOD Launcher Simple"and added to the list.Each mod must have properly edited Gameinfo.txt to make full use of SMOD STDL features.

root\steamemu.ini:Contains information for emulation engine about currently used SteamAppIDChange "AppId=" under "HL2.EXE" header to emulate different engine versions.

"Extracted=1" under "Emulator" header.Place-holder for WIP* feature that'll allow user to use non-extracted .vpk-s archives.It has no use at this moment.

*Work in progress

PREPARAION OF USER-MADE SMOD'S / GAMEINFO.TXT TIERS:

In order to properly use Half-Life 2 files every 3rd-party SMOD mod, needs to have following "SearchPaths" structure:

Game|gameinfo_path|.gamehl2game"|gameinfo_path|..\SDKBase"game"|gameinfo_path|..\..\..\common\Half-Life 2\hl2"Every other Asset folder must be located underneath those lines.For example adding Counter-Strke Source files to mod, must look like this:

"GameInfo"{game "SMOD: The Last Survivor"title "SMOD: The Last Survivor"title2"0.3"developer "Pepsifan04,The SMOD Author, help and moral support from Dev.muffin and BSnooch"website"http://devmuffin.tumblr.com/""icon" "icon"

nodifficulty 0nocrosshair0nohimodel0nomodels0FileSystem{SteamAppId220// This will mount all the GCFs we need (240=CS:S, 220=HL2).ToolsAppId211// Tools will load this (ie: source SDK caches) to get things like materials\debug, materials\editor, etc.SearchPaths{Game|gameinfo_path|.Gamehl2game"|gameinfo_path|..\..\SDKBase"Game"|gameinfo_path|..\..\..\..\common\Half-Life 2\hl2"Game"|gameinfo_path|..\..\..\..\common\Half-Life 2 Deathmatch\hl2mp"Game"|gameinfo_path|..\..\..\..\common\Counter-Strike Source\cstrike"}}}

There's a lot to discover now, even I'm not sure how SMOD handles OB engine.

This is something like SMOD 1.5...About the shaders, what exactly do I have to modify? And how? I always thought those shader files (can't remember the extension) were compiled, so you can't modify the contents of them.And what exactly does platform do anyway?